Can our altruistic Olympic volunteer heroes score a Christmas No 1?

Standing in a drab, soundproofed room in King’s Cross, I did not expect to cry. To get here, I had to trudge through the drizzle and darkness of a wintry London to an anonymous doorway down an inconspicuous alley. Inside, past messy corridors and photos of album covers, it is summer. Not any old summer – but Olympic summer, London 2012-style.

The 30 volunteers who make up the Games Maker Choir are unmistakable: a motley crew of shapes, sizes and ages in their purple and red polo shirts and tracksuit bottoms. And their glow brings it all flooding back: for several weeks in 2012, we pulled off the greatest Olympics and Paralympics in history, thanks in no small part to these nameless altruists in nylon.

The choir is here with singer-songwriter Alistair Griffin to rehearse a single that he has written for them, I Wish For You the World. The hope is that the song, to be released on December 16, will top the charts this Christmas.

In a black leather jacket and scarf, Griffin sings pitch-perfect over his guitar. When his lone voice drops away to allow the choir to soar above the piano, drums and bells, it’s all too much. I am covered in goosebumps and find myself shedding a tear.

For a man who began his musical career on the BBC’s Fame Academy in 2003, Griffin is remarkably anonymous. His name rings a vague bell, but if you watch sport on television, you will have hummed one of his songs. They have featured in the BBC’s end-of-season Formula 1 montages, in its Wimbledon coverage of Andy Murray’s ascent to the final, and Just Drive is now the permanent theme tune to Sky’s F1 coverage.

Despite his success (he has also written two Top 20 songs, Bring It On/My Lover’s Prayer and You and Me (Tonight), Griffin has resisted moving to London and still lives near Whitby, close to his family, writing music for himself and for other artists at a recording studio that he built on a farm.

“I’m a massive fan of sport. I played football as a kid, and I wish I could have played for Middlesbrough or even England. That’s probably why I’m quite good at writing these songs, because I played sport to a certain level – not a very high one – but I know the ins and outs. When you hear, say, an England World Cup song, you know the person who wrote it knows nothing about football.”

So how did he come to write his Olympic track?

“One of my sisters gave me a ticket to Olympic Super Saturday. I watched the hockey, and we lost. But it was great to be there. London was a changed place: it had a bit of magic. When I was in the Olympic Park, what struck me were the Games Makers. Their enthusiasm made the Games.”

One of those Games Makers was Victoria Verbi, a 21-year-old amateur musician who posted a note at the Olympic Park asking if anyone fancied starting a choir. Within a day she had 200 applications from other Games Makers. Two months later, Alistair tracked them down to perform a new song he had written.

“I wanted to capture the spirit and the emotion of what was going on,” he says. “A choir is a very special entity. It is greater than the sum of its parts – just like the Games Makers themselves.”

Like most of the nation, Griffin loved the way the Olympics and Paralympics showcased substance over style; graft over instant gratification. “That’s why I wanted this song to raise money for future Olympians and Paralympians – they’re already training for Rio 2016.”

All profits will be donated to the British Olympic Foundation and British Paralympic Association.

David Cameron talked about wishing to “bottle” the spirit of the Olympics. Well here it is, the perfect antidote to the vacuousness of TV talent shows. If it beats the X Factor single to the Christmas No 1 spot, Britain’s pride will be reinstated once again.